Today, at the National Center for Artistic Creativity of Children and Youth, a meeting of the Coordinating Council for the development and implementation of joint programs of cooperation between government bodies and the Belarusian Orthodox Church takes place on the topic: "Interaction between the system of additional education for children and youth with the Belarusian Orthodox Church."

The meeting is attended by Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets and Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Venijamin.

The parties discussed key areas of interaction between educational institutions and the Belarusian Orthodox Church, issues of the formation of spiritual and moral culture and patriotism of students, the work of educational councils, the Republican Resource Center for the spiritual, moral and patriotic education of children and youth, etc.

On the eve of the new academic year, the meeting participants identified priority tasks for spiritual, moral and patriotic education:

In the 2023/2024 academic year, it is necessary to pay enormous amount of attention to the preparation of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders. Institutions of general secondary education should pay close attention to the organization of extracurricular activities dedicated to the feat of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War, holding memory lessons using information and analytical materials of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus on the investigation of the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War.

In this regard, in the 2023/2024 academic year, it is necessary to continue work on updating and designing museum expositions, museum rooms dedicated to the feat of the Belarusian people, the issues of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War.

Local history is important as well! It allows you to touch your roots, the shrines of your native land. In the 2023/2024 academic year, it is planned to hold republican local history readings for students dedicated to the Hero of Belarus Metropolitan Filaret, the republican local history forum of pedagogical workers “Development of school regional studies: resources, projects, practices”, publication of a collection of materials from the experience of working on Orthodox local history.

For successful spiritual and moral education, painstaking work aimed at honoring elders, family, traditional family values, and promoting responsible parenthood is important. This mission is entrusted to the "Parent Universities" in the field.

The implementation of optional classes "Fundamentals of spiritual and moral culture and patriotism" for students of V (VI), VI (VII) classes of general secondary education institutions will continue. A program and manual for the VII (VIII) grades have been prepared for approval. As part of the implementation of the scientific theme, a program and an invariant component of the manual for X (XI) classes were developed. Optional classes in this direction are designed to become the center of the spiritual life of the educational institution, to encourage students to moral behavior, moral improvement and moral deed.

At present, the role and number of resource centers for the spiritual, moral and patriotic education of students is significantly increasing. Such centers, which develop as a single system, are successfully operating in various districts and all regions of the country.

The participants of the Coordinating Council expressed confidence that the meeting would become a new impetus for continuing the tradition of unity of spiritual and educational aspects in the upbringing of young people, the formation of their moral principles.